His parents were convinced their son was the victim of the "knockout game," as he was randomly and viciously punched from behind.

His jaw was shattered in the attack.

The community stepped up to support the family, but no one was really prepared for the act of kindness that came Wednesday morning from a seemingly unlikely source.

Walking home from the Covington Library last month, Jacob Kelley was ambushed from behind and punched in the face. He said he never saw it coming.

Three weeks later, Jacob described his injury. "They broke two spots of the jaw, so I had to get surgery. They put three metal plates and 16 screws in there," he said.

Covington police quickly arrested two juveniles in connection with the attack.

"You never want this to happen to anyone," said his mother, Christine Kelley, "But when it happens to a special-needs child, when it's your child, it's devastating. He's gotten so much love from total strangers. It's just amazing to him."

At the Best Buy in Covington on Wednesday, Jacob was inside shopping with his parents when he was surprised by a contingent of police officers from the Franklinton Police Department in Washington Parish.

They had seen the story of the attack and decided to do something to help. Franklinton Police Department Maj. Justin Brown went to his department and the local Fraternal Order of Police and they pooled their money.

They then contacted the Best Buy in Covington. Together, they did something nice for Jacob, giving him a gaming laptop and everything that goes with it.

But why would the Franklinton Police Department cross the parish line to help a kid in Covington? "To show him that the world is not a bad place," said Brown. "Yes, you do have bad people in it, but there's so many good people out there and anytime something bad happens you can always look around and see the people that are going to come running to help."

Best Buy was glad to be on board. Covington Best Buy specialty sales manager Malarie Jenkins said, "Anytime Best Buy has the opportunity to help out with a community event like this, we want to take part in it."

When Jacob saw the outpouring of support and the stack of gifts, the aspiring writer/singer/actor was briefly at a loss for words. Finally he admitted, "I think words cannot explain it. Words cannot explain how I feel right now (about) of all the support."

Jacob said his real gift was not the gaming computer, but the knowledge that there's a bunch of people, including a group of Franklinton police officers he's never met, who really do care about him.